A man can spend his whole existence never learning the simple lesson that he has only one life and that if he fails to do what he wants with it, nobody else really cares.

The only thing that keeps a man going is energy. And what is energy but liking life?

There is a charm, even for homely things, in perfect maintenance.

A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger is always that he will not recognize when he is dull.

Novels must have verisimilitude, and truth has little enough of that.

Keep doing good deeds long enough, and you'll probably turn out a good man in spite of yourself.

Frederick Buechner can find grace and redemption even in the shoddiest, phoniest aspects of a cultural wasteland. One reads Lion Country...with hope and delight.